People who continuously bash Islam for its allegedly oppressive treatment of women should take another look at the situation.

I am also guilty of missing this news item that is obviously a precursor to a revolution in inter-gender relations in the Muslim world.

The leader of a radical mosque besieged by Pakistani security forces in Islamabad has been caught trying to escape wearing a woman's burka. Security forces seized Maulana Abdul Aziz as he tried to leave the Red Mosque amid a crowd of women.

It should be clear that the significance of this story is far beyond a mere scrap with these or other security people who are in any case not trained to see the real meaning of the event.

It is one thing when a criminal decides to wear burka for his own purposes. But when a senior religious cleric goes for it, it is a whole new bowl of hummus, my dear friends! The unisex dressing code is coming and it is going to change the world as we know it.

30 August 2007

Avigdor Lieberman, our Minister of Strategic Threats, definitely does not rest on his laurels. His latest volley should make Mahmoud the Mad sit up and listen.

"The Iranian leadership with Ahmadinejad at its helm is temporary," Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman said Monday in an interview with Israel Radio's Farsi station.

The Iranian administration is "a band of crooks jeopardizing the security of Iran and the entire world," he said. "Instead of investing in the economy, [they] are investing in terror and Hizbullah, and I hope the Iranian people will remember this the next time they line up to vote."

All in all, the above will not cause Ahmydinnerjacket a mortal wound, but no one can say it wasn't a strategic threat. As strategic threats go these days.

Not being a man of nuances, Avigdor could benefit from the following details:

Iranian leadership does not have "Ahmadinejad at its helm" . Mahmoud is far from being where Avigdor envisions him. Just a figurehead, albeit with a big mouth.

Our own administration at the moment is also a bunch of crooks, but so what?

And everything is temporary, more so when it is said about administration...

American-run programs that train Fatah militias were instrumental in the “success” of the Palestinian intifada that began in 2000, a senior Fatah militant told The New York Sun....Mr. Yousuf seemed to anticipate criticism for speaking publicly about the training. He’s not “talking about U.S. training in order to irritate the Americans or the Israelis and not in order to create provocations,” he said. “I’m just telling you the truth.”

Nizhny Novgorod traveller Valentin Efremov intends to resolve the enigma of Lake Baikal, performing an air balloon flight over the so-called local "Bermuda Triangle".

First of unusual events over Baikal was in 1907. Aeronautical battalion of the Russian army was flying over the world's largest freshwater lake, and returned a verdict : it is dangerous. Several expeditions have tried to check this statement, some of these expeditions went missing. The ones who returned told surprising stories of light-radiating spheres, shiny concentric circles, being "lost in time" and abnormal airflow currents that have not allowed to cross the space above the lake.

Valentin Efremov will attempt to solve the puzzle on September 9 on board an airship "Holy Russia." On board with him will be researcher Vladimir Isaychev. The airship is equipped by advanced navigation tools especially for this flight . The expedition will be monitored from the ground by air defense units and emergency task force.

The traveler from Nizhny Novgorod is known for his air balloon flight to the North Pole and his last year unique expedition to the Arctic. "If everything will go without a problem with our health, science will gain invaluable information, observations and photography," says Efremov about his Baikal expedition.

As an aside: the article comes from Pravda ("The Truth") and as such should be taken with a grain of salt. Besides, Russians are known to be jealous of anything they do not have at home, preferably bigger and shinier. So here...

29 August 2007

It is not to say that journalists shouldn't pursue an interesting story where they can. And interviewing Khaled Meshaal, the under-assassinated head of Hamas, is a good story.

This article, however, is almost totally devoid of anything new, aside of that dramatic description of the circumstances surrounding the interview itself. Yeah, I know, there was a video shown on CNN, which was also kinda shallow. But the opening lines of the story just take the cake:

Sitting in a room with the top Hamas leader - a man Israel would prefer dead - is not an easy feeling, knowing that at any second a missile could shatter the building, killing everyone inside, myself included.

It is not that there was any real concern - after all, Israeli jets have not launched missiles at any targets in Damascus for quite a long time. But what wouldn't one do for a bit of a drama?

So what were the main messages conveyed by Meshaal?

We did not blackmail Israel, and we gave free information to Gilad Shalit's father and his family that Gilad Shalit is still alive.

Hamas may carry out a mega-terror attack, the Deputy Shin Bet Chief, known only as Y, told cabinet members Sunday. "There were clear orders from the Hamas headquarters abroad to Hamas here to carry out a mass casualty attack in Israel," he said.

Dear readers, please disregard the picture in that old post. While the information conveyed by that post was genuine and the best we had in our disposal at that time, the picture published there is already outdated, and it will be impossible to find the Hidden Imam in it. This also invalidates our promise of a prize.

According to our latest inputs, the Hidden Imam was viewed in Europe recently, hiking through the woods. Our surveillance cameras have registered his presence in this picture:

The purpose of the Hidden Imam's migration to Europe is not absolutely clear for the moment, but the reader that comes up with identification of His Majesty in the above picture will be still eligible for the prize.

The man is a fraud, an over-decorated demagogue who plays for a captive audience that would eat any lie out of his hands. He is not the brightest bulb as far as British journalism is concerned, leave alone the whole blue journalistic world. Even his name - which should not, by itself, pay for the sins of its owner - became somewhat of a stain. You know the man I mean by know.

For the last few years he was showing signs of cooking on another planet. Of having too many pigeons shitting on his antenna. Of being a few sandwiches short of a picnic. You know what I mean...

Now we have received a final confirmation that he is barking mad. Of course, it will only endear him more to his groupies, so it is like nothing happened, in fact. And I don't have any problems with this. Just a question. Look at that headline:

28 August 2007

It is already more than two months since this revelation was published in English. Time to shut the trapdoor and to count the prey. Time to say:

GOTCHA!

First a short aside: one of the great (was it Fred Hoyle?) said once something about Internet being a garbage bin of the humanity. Looking at development of stories like the one of Che Guevara supposed Jewishness (or, to take some more famous example - "fake" Lunar landing, controlled demolition of WTC, etc.) is a great way to study the behavior of a few specific segments of humanity who feed on such garbage.

Now - some facts about the story. No, I am not the author, sorry to say, although I would like to pretend to this title. Sasha Nepomnyaschiy, the owner of a Russian language blog on LiVEJOURNAL, published the full text on April 1 (a small detail that escaped everyone who "researched" it, and I did not link to the original on purpose, but to another copy, preferring to hide this date for a while). Since then, Sasha has already disclosed publicly* (August 3) the fact of the story being a fake, but who reads Russian?

I got a link to the story from a friend, and the potential was clear to me immediately. The only thing to do was to translate it (partially) into English and then just be patient for a while. I have chosen a title and other wordage to sound doubtful, knowing that it will only serve as an additional irritant to some. Of course, I have avoided some passages of the story that were too outlandish even for conspiracy freaks. The passage about Che trying to convert the Indian tribes back to Judaism, like some others, has been left out. More is the pity, because it is superb...

In a few weeks my post started to draw more and more hits, majority of them from South America and Spain, but other regions of the world were represented quite solidly. Not following the Spanish language press, I can only refer to the Maariv's article (later about it) stating that the "Jewish communities of South America are agitated" and these twoarticles.

The heaviest fall, as far as professional journalists are concerned, was experienced by Maariv. I do not have an on-line link to the article, but here is the scanned text, courtesy of a Hebrew forum member. Most of the article is dedicated to translation of the original text into Hebrew (most probably from my post, since the same passages are omitted), but the journo has done some legwork, interviewing a few Israeli VIPs (amazingly, there wasn't an unequivocal denial of the possible family connection - I have started to wonder myself). Anyway - it is a sample of a sloppy journalism or, alternatively, a case of a wise guy who has seen through the bluff and just picked it up for fun.

And then the moonbats started to came in. In droves. First (as far as I know) was the notoriousuruknet, then a site called Roads to Iraq, then the notorious Jew- and Israeli-haters of Kabobfest, somebody calls himself Muslim in Suffer and many more. Eventually the Egyptian Al Ahram got caught as well (no link, since it is broken by now). The headline was more or less uniform:

Israeli propaganda: Che Guevara and Ariel Sharon are cousins

None of the morons, of course, was able to explain what is it precisely that Israeli propaganda intends to get of the story, but the obvious excitement and the knee-jerk reaction are witness to the readiness to jump at any provocation...

Over the years, I have seen many people getting "accused" of having Jewish ancestry by their political adversaries. This tactic is used to discredit the person, throw doubts on their loyalty, and attribute undefined ulterior motives for their often controvertial actions.

These rumors are appealing to the masses because it offers a simple (wrong) answer to complex questions (actions of leaders).

Viva to sanity!

And then came the cavalry of another kind: the extremists. As a good example - some cesspool with a usual pretentious name "LibertyForum" that draws its moonbats both from the extreme right and extreme left, and they manage to coexist quite nicely there. Twothreads with some delicious comments, part of which I just have to quote:

I have always suspected Castro of being a Jew but not Che. Does anybody have any insight? I would also add that my guess is that Judeo-Freemasonry has probably played a larger role in the revolutionary movement in Latin America then direct Jewish/Zionist influence.

I think the message here is a simply a warning to south Americans that south America is being filtrated by "Israel". This has been going on for many generations however and to their great detrement. At least they're getting wise to it. Israel is not the top of the pyramid however.

but today he is an icon the jewish left trot out to lead the young kids with and sell new fashion

And so it goes...

Meanwhile, poor Dr Ephraim Davidi, author of a biography on Che, was riled out of his academic cool and forced to deal with stupidest inquiries - my apologies extended to him and his close ones who obviously suffered for a period of time. That is, unless he is one of the Che fervent followers.

As for the tool used in this Elders' propaganda exercise, one Ernesto Guevara de la Serna: a loser, a psychopath, a torturer, a murderer, in short - everything you all do not want your children to become - may he burn in hell, if there is a hell. And may all these stupid youngsters who still put his posters on their walls, see this picture in their dreams, instead of the schmaltzy poster boy:

(*) Some friends say that telling the truth at this stage will not stop the story from spreading, since it has already got a life of its own. We'll see.

P.S. Now that we have established that Che Guevara is not Jewish, one question still bothers me: is he or isn't he Ariel Sharon's cousin?

I strongly suspect that if I were (to take one example) a member of a local SPCA branch, dedicated to one goal and one goal only, my life would have been much easier. Just save some cats, harass a few cosmetics companies, burn down a biochemistry lab or two - and your day is full. Some yogurt, a few carrots and a B12 pill, and you are ready for your hard-earned rest. Now being an Hasbara grunt make you deal with a variety of issues that tire you out, make you irritable and instead of yogurt push you into red meat, sausages and distilled grains...

And here comes up another issue. A non-Jewish citizen of Israel - Dima from Ariel (we know than even not being Jewish will not save the "settler" Dima from the ire of the Guardian readers) who complains about the problems his non-kosher blood creates for him with the Israeli establishment.

And you know what - Dima is totally right. He, like many people (including some biblical heroes) has decided to join the tribe, and more power to Dima. The problem is that, unlike several thousand years ago, we have a religious establishment that is tough as nails and in some matters even more stupid. And we have the Old Man who has decided what he has decided for reasons of the most broad political unity or whatever crossed his brain at the moment. And we are stuck with the righteous case of Dima who, if you ask me, is more a member of the tribe than many others, their maternal lineage notwithstanding.

So, it is very easy to champion Dima's case - the injured party is here for all to see, and the injury, as the offender, are clear and present too. And, in his endearing manner of a raging bull, Seth is on the case. His method of applying a heavy blunt instrument to all problems never fails to gain admirers and haters, being effective at least in this aspect.

I, however, being an Elder's cog (have I mentioned it already?), cannot overlook the holes in the largely one-dimensional story as conveyed by Seth.

First of all, the problem of the Aliyah (the immigration of Jews to Israel) which is being bandied without any sign of solution for too many years. The million or so immigrants that blessed the country in the nineties, brought with them a lot of much needed skills and a lot of ready and willing manpower, many of them still doing some work the Sabras and the veteran Olim consider below their status. Unfortunately, they also brought with them a sizable population of non-Jewish immigrants, and a part of this population, having nothing in common with the country, coming here using their family connections and for purely economic reasons, becomes more and more of a problem. The most extreme manifestation of this problem is a sharp rise of antisemitic incidents in later years - believe it or not. Here is just one case:

On May 4, the police have apprehended a TZACHAL (IDF) soldier, a resident of Ariel, suspected of membership in a Neo-Nazi organization from abroad. When his behavior in the Army has become suspicious, his activity was being monitored, according to Ynet. In particular, suspicion was raised by a swastika tattooed on his body.

Of course, my choice of a case (like Dima, this creature is from Ariel) was not incidental - maybe Seth should have reported on this one too, what do you think?

The problem is that our establishment has no legal tools in its disposal to cope with a case like this. And there are many more of the same ilk.

Secondly - the problems Dima complains (rightfully) about.

I'm angry that I can't be buried in a Jewish cemetery.

Really, Dima (Seth). I, personally, see so little meaning in the disposal of my personal stiff that I am ready to swap places with Dima. I know that for Dima the importance of the case is more symbolic than anything else, still let's be reasonable. Separation of stiffs according to their (presumed) religion, laughable as it may seem, is an accepted practice in many countries.

I'm angry that I can't marry a Jewish girl in Israel.

I am angry about it too, Dima. However, many Jewish youngsters travel to Cyprus, Prague etc. to marry - for reasons other than not being Jewish enough. You will do so too, when the time comes. No sweat, really, and you can flip a bird to the Chief Rabbi as a bonus.

The last, but not the least: acceptance into society. And here Dima, willingly or not, with Seth being a faithful recorder, goes absolutely wrong. The problem here is rather semantic: Dima, as I and the million+ other immigrants from Russia, will remain "Russians" till death here. Exactly as Seth will remain "Anglosaxi" and others will remain "Moroccans", "Poles", "Romanians". It doesn't have anything to do with race or bloodline and everything to do with this accent that rarely dies and that intangible something that shows were one was born. Matters absolutely nothing. I have a pleasure of personal knowledge of many "Russian Russian" immigrants who are living full lives, totally absorbed, submerged and more Israeli than some... but I have been there already.

And Seth: Application of 2x4 below the belt should be counted as a foul; I mean this:

Instead, the likes of Dima will continue to soldier on, in every sense of the word, physically on the inside of Israel's borders, but in every other way an outsider.

As a dramatic closing line it may gain some points, however Dima is not an outsider, as he very well knows, even if his lot is not be buried in the military cemetery (and I wish for it not to be needed in any case) and to marry a Jewish (or any other) girl in Prague or Cyprus.

27 August 2007

Roaming the CiF jungle, I have stumbled on an interesting page - one that shows the frequency of main subjects broached on CiF. It is not clear what period of time is represented, but in any case the statistics are amazing (yes, I know - lies, damn lies and statistics...). Take a look (click to enlarge):

United States seems to lead the list as the most popular subject with 776 articles. Well, you may say, it is only natural that the most powerful nation on Earth would be of the highest interest to The Guardian in its choice of topics. Even if we are talking about a British newspaper.

And you will be dead wrong, as I have been - after the first glance. While Israel looks quite high on the charts, trailing Iraq (the third horse in the race) by 49 points, the charts do not do it full "justice".

After the second glance, I have decided to mark by green the subjects directly or indirectly related to Israel. Then I have applied some conservative percentages to those bearing a question mark (e.g. 10% of all Iran-related articles will carry some Israel-related tunes, 60% of all terror-related etc...). I have left out on purpose several subjects that are definitely carrying some Israel-related pieces, again - to be on a conservative side.

The result - roughly 1300 points - is rather staggering.

I don't want to go into further analysis of the statistics, just compare the above number with that of China (137) Britain (130 - it is supposed to be a British newspaper, FFS!), Russia(106).

No matter how the results are turned around, looked upon and dissected, the picture shows a dark and unhealthy obsession. If you take into account that the majority (I would say, more than 90%) of the articles are bashing Israel for this or other, real or imaginary, offense, deservedly or not... well, I don't have to spell it, do I?

That is, Peter Ryley a.k.a the Fat Man on a Keyboard who got into Norm's hall of fame these days. Which occasion calls for an appropriate libation (notice to self - an action item for this evening). It is also an opportunity to express my appreciation for his blog. Indeed, even an Internet bandit like me could appreciate a formidable blogger when he sees one. And understand that it is vastly preferable to have him in my tent pissing out than vice versa.

Besides, he likes Kundera, which is neither here not there, but nevertheless a nice coincidence. In addition, he is with the DSTPFW crowd, which is, like, totally here.

On top of all that - he is an exceedingly humble person, which could be clearly seen from his profile. Needlessly, IMHO.

Oh, and the last remark - I will take Robbie Coltrane over Clooney every day, thank you.

(By now you know that this message doesn't bode well, and you are right).

You have already had the first inkling of the changes coming to the continent of North America and you have already seen this map - vague and general as it is.

Since the Elders have already made sure of the outcome (resistance is futile and detrimental to your health, be assured) and since the story we have initially tried to laughoff is already out, I was given the green light to publish the details of our latest operation that was put in motion several years ago and is now close to completion.

I shall have to start from times immemorial, so be patient for a while. You see, as the popular lore goes, Jacob has fathered 12 sons and one daughter. This is not strictly true. To give you a hint: which floor is usually missing in many US hotels?

Anyhow, as our archives show, there was another son. He was aptly named Zichron-Yaacov, or "Jacob's memory" for several reasons: first of all, no one of Jacob's wives wanted to confess to the birth of the unluckily numbered son. Secondly, due to his failing memory, frequent pregnancies in the family and what with spending a lot of time abroad (business, business) and all that coming and going, Jacob misremembered the sequence of events and wasn't totally sure which wife was due to produce the offspring. Lastly, it didn't matter that much really, so Jacob just went back to his business and the boy was raised by the whole tribe.

However, when the sons were up to dividing the heirloom, it was clear that Zicky is not getting any - no sane person will divide his place into that unlucky number of pieces. Thus, being given a ship, a number of slaves and concubines, Zichron-Yaacov was sent away with a vague blessing and an order not to come back under any circumstances lest he wants to be set upon and teared to bits by the other 12 fierce (and strapping) brothers.

To make the long story short - Zicky and his team, due to the vagaries of sea travel and the winds, got to the Central America somewhat earlier than Columbus, settled there, were fruitful and multiplied and this is how we have the Maya, the Aztecs and all that. As for the written language - Zicky was so pissed off with his family that he ordered his scribes to invent a new one, for which purpose a mix of Yiddish and Chinese was chosen. And if you have ever wondered about that peculiar similarity between nachos and matzo bread, now you know better...

With the advent of DNA and all that scientific crap, the facts above were double-checked by our eggheads, and the results were unequivocal. So you understand by now why we, the Elders, have the interests of state of Mexico foremost in our minds and why there will have to be some changes in the NA. Sorry, folks, but it cannot be helped - the family comes first, and besides we want to make up to Zicky's descendants.

So, to start with, we have been concerned lately with that resistance to the peaceful migration of our brothers from Mexico north. The debates in the Congress and the Senate, the obstructionism, this ridiculous fence (notice that its construction has been slowed down - we decided not to provide our Mexican brothers to help out anymore, so here you are) - this must be resolved.

Thus, the solution will be carried out in three (as usual) steps:

Construction of the Mexico-Canada highway

Population of Canada by our relatives

Pincer movement from the North and South to overwhelm the US

I hope the picture is clear?

Oh, and there was some concern about the fate of Kansas City and the wide swath through it that we'll have to cut for the 15-lane (yes, it is 15 - each direction) road. Sorry again, folks, but Kansas City will have to go. It is my personal point and I got a special permission from the Elders' Council, so see it as a fair warning. Next time when a person asks for his steak to be medium-rare, do not try to persuade him that these cinders are what he really asked for...

As a consolation, we can promise that what you used to call Mexican food in US will be eradicated and replaced by the real stuff. Which is just yummy!

25 August 2007

Normally I wouldn't piss on this person's head if it were on fire. Normally I would not link to his site, but this is an exceptional case. Mikey has decided to argue with the creature, using logic, sources, common sense and courtesy, considering that it could be managed even in the poisonous and hostile atmosphere. Look where it has gone.

Notice how soon the mention of "moderation" appears in the thread, and how soon the mental dwarf starts deleting the comments he (and his regular groupies) cannot cope with.

At least one part of the population experiences these days much more than just a stir.

Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that women who visited its Web site posted comments on Putin's "vigorous torso" and said they "were screaming with delight and showering (him) with compliments."

It looks like Vladimir Vladimirovich will have to avoid public appearances for a while, otherwise no quantity or quality of bodyguards will be able to save him from a bitter end: asphyxiation by overwhelming quantities of flying female underwear.

Other groups of interest were, however, more subdued in their response to the pictures. GLBT folks are split on their impressions. We have interviewed a prominent representative of the Russian G fraction of this group. Since he wishes to remain anonymous, we, acording to the Elders' policy of openness, are happy to tell that his real name is Sergey Mokrozadov and his phone is +792593936699. These are his words (translated):

Yeah, I have seen that picture. The truth is, military-looking fatigues, fingerless gloves, a bush hat and chic sunglasses do not do it for me. Even that second picture (referring to the one below) where he is obviously doing his best to be attractive to us, doesn't exactly cut the mustard.

Stir? I don't know from a stir. Let's call it a budge, OK? In fact, I talked with a few fellows of my persuasion, and the response varied from "slightest tremor" via "budge", "shift", "tweet", "twitch" to "some vague vibe". One person even used the term "murmur", but he is known to exaggerate occasionally. And there definitely wasn't a mention of what you would call... hard feeling, if you get my drift...

What? Leading the next pride parade in Moscow? Forget it! We have much better... er... equipped members.

We have translated for Sergey the following passage from the article:

Yevgeny Volk, who heads the Heritage Foundation's Moscow office, said the political elite increasingly views Putin as a lame duck leader and that the photos only strengthen the impression that he should no longer be taken seriously.

Sergey response was: "That's cool with me, dudes. Better tell ya'll about my boyfriend: Putin can..." The rest of the interview will remained sealed in our archives, at least till the current presidency term is over - to avoid a nuclear conflagration. Unlike that Volk fellow, we take Vladimir Vladimirovich seriously, as this article witnesses.

The poor old Scandinavian moose is now being blamed for climate change, with researchers in Norway claiming that a grown moose can produce 2,100 kilos of carbon dioxide a year -- equivalent to the CO2 output resulting from a 13,000 kilometer car journey.

Norway has some 120,000 moose but an estimated 35,000 are expected to be killed in this year's moose hunting season, which starts on September 25, Norwegian newspaper VG reported.

So it is 120,000 moose who are causing the climate change, what? While 2 billion (or more) absolutely unfettered human vegetarians roam their gardens and all kinds of nature stores, producing uncounted kilos of gases via their incessant belching (well, this is how it is euphemistically called in the article).

No, I am not offering to issue hunting licenses for vegetarians, so pipe down, please. Although, upon second thought, the militant ones could do with... OK, let's leave it alone for the HQ to consider. What I have in mind is enforced re-education and strict meat, eggs and fish diet for the rest of their lives. Call it perennial country breakfast, if you will...

24 August 2007

Either they are unremittingly righteous, absolute and Stalinist or, worse, smug without the least consciousness of being so. It is as if each were thinking, If only the rest of the scum I am obliged to share this earth with were as nice and intelligent as I am all would be all right.

The ways of class struggle, like the ways of You Know Who, are mysterious. So mysterious that frequently, as it is exceedingly well shown by Terry Glavinhere, people who are (class struggle wise, that is) supposed to hate and fight each other the most, suddenly discover that for quite some time they are fighting the same political enemy shoulder to shoulder.

Of course, telling them about it is a suicidal idea: supra-lefties and ultra-righties hate nothing more than a sudden realization that in fact they are not that different. But here is the stark unadorned truth...

23 August 2007

The story itself is a part of upcoming "God's Warriors" series, hosted by CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, it says in the CNN article. It is unclear whether the production as a whole is a comedy to vie the Flying Circus, but at least this part is full of comic content.

That is Daveed - although to me he looks like a plain David. What is not plain is his life story.

Born to Jewish parents who call themselves mystics, he grew up in what he calls the "liberal hippie Mecca" of Ashland, Oregon...

Uhu.

A college friend introduced him to Islam and he was intrigued by its peaceful message. "Islam was a very simple faith and as I learned more and more about it, it seemed more and more fascinating to me," he said.

Sure.

"We felt it was OK," his father Moshe Ross said. "We were glad that he was going to study something and hopefully seriously. And we were happy with Islam."

Betcha.

In 1999 he left his job at Al-Haramain for law school at New York University. Away from his co-workers, he was free to question the radical doctrines he'd learned in Oregon and meet with others about spirituality, including Christians. A year later, he converted to Christianity and was eventually baptized in the Baptist church.

So far so good.

It was a decision he took extremely seriously because he said his colleagues at Al-Haramain had preached that leaving Islam was punishable by death.

Nah... is that so?

Two years later, in 2004, federal agents raided the Ashland offices of Al-Haramain. When he learned of the bust, Gartenstein-Ross says he contacted the FBI.

Wow, man!

...he is now a counter-terrorism consultant who works with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think-tank formed after September 11, 2001, that lists former FBI director Louis Freeh, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Sen. Joseph Lieberman among its "distinguished advisers."

Dude - you are heavy now!

So, what is the lesson of the whole story (which is sorely missing in that CNN article* linked above)?

Try not to be born to parents who smoke the cheapest weed!

And a corollary:

There must be an easier way to get to Christiane Amanpour's attention, surely.

(*) The article also doesn't tell whether Daveed remains a Baptists or, perhaps, FBI is his sole religion at the moment.

Unfortunately, I do not live in Manchester or anywhere close, and I have some reservations about these "light refreshments" - but if I were around at the time, I would surely take part in this meeting. What with being a student of Elders' arts an thus eligible for a free ride...

So should you, if you are in the vicinity - it will be definitely better for you then being knocked on your noggin by a mad Man U tifosi.

22 August 2007

I was hesitating for a while about the title for this post. How do you call a person who sees only one side of a multi-dimensional problem? One-trick pony? One-sided coin? Obsessed? Then I recalled what was shown to me many years ago in the classroom: the Moebius Ring (look for "Escher's ants" on the page). Like the ants in that animation, some people are revolving endlessly on the same circular road of habitual love/hate, coming to a degree of mental laziness where they are unable to discern anything that exists beyond their single track. Their highly developed selective vision will filter out all that clashes with their simple world view.

Now, of course, Moebius people are not endemic to one specific political wing (and I shall never tire to repeat it). But for this post I have chosen a specimen of the anti-Israeli side.

It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it!

This is the way one of the Jonathan Cook's supporters characterized his latest outburst of hate on CiF (yep, the Guardian again, how did you guess?). And the supporter is absolutely right - this is an exceedingly dirty job Cook is doing, no buts about it.

The gist of the article The propaganda machine is that poor Mr Cook and his colleagues in the good fight against Zionism are being relentlessly and viciously attacked by the Hasbara cohorts. And the one-sided vision is displayed in the article in all its glory. Take this:

Volcanic outbursts of hatred on Cif greet anyone who objects to Israel's policies...

It would have been funny if it were not so pitiful: anyone who have invested half an hour of his/her time in browsing Middle East (or anything else, for that matter) - related articles will immediately know that volcanic outbursts of hatred greet anyone who supports Israel as well - and to a much higher intensity. But remember - we are talking about the Moebius Man here.

I am not sure if any other country or cause encourages this kind of mainly voluntary propaganda work, but I am sure that no other country or cause has the human resources that Israel can rely on to carry it out. There are thousands of people sitting at their computers ready to pounce.

You see how scary the picture is? Thousands - literally thousands of Hasbara grunts, coordinated by octopus-like tentacles of the Elders (right, let's not forget the Elders) and ready to pounce. Indeed, one gets heebie-jeebies imagining this. Of course one should not mind the myriads of happy fellow travelers infesting The Guardian, the Daily Kos, the Huffington Post, the Counterpunch, MPAC, Electronic Intifada... the list is endless, and I am not even mentioning the Muslim countries press (get your inkling here) dubbing in pure antisemitism and the neo-Nazi sites and... ad infinitum. But remember - we are talking about the Moebius Man here. And one who is not above profiting from many of the media outfits mentioned explicitly or implicitly above - just take a look at his visiting card. Truly a man whose freedom of speech is being curtailed...

And of course, the poor injured freedom fighter does not forget to push that straw man of "I am being called an anti-Semite". Really, my heart goes out to him. How about "dork", Jonathan? And a pitiful one to boot, not above some hypocrisy? Take this complaint, for instance:

Other posters simply lied, in the great tradition of hasbara. Several suggested I had written that Rafik Hariri was killed by Israel. I hadn't, and you can check my website to be sure.

Unlike my colleagues, I do not claim to know who killed Gemayel. Maybe Syria was behind the shooting. Maybe, in Lebanon's notoriously intrigue-ridden and fractious political system, someone with a grudge against Gemayel – even from within his own party – pulled the trigger. Or maybe, Israel once again flexed the muscles of its long arm in Lebanon.

No surprise, then, that some people may have mixed one semi-libelous statement with another, quite similar.

Several Israeli armaments factories and storage depots have been built close by Arab communities in the north of Israel, possibly in the hope that by locating them there Arab regimes will be deterred from attacking Israel's enormous armory. In other words, the inhabitants of several of Israel's Arab towns and villages have been turned into collective human shields – protection for Israel's war machine.

That Israel is one of the most populated corners in the world and that existence of military installations of all kinds everywhere is a sad background of our existence - these facts do not enter the one-dimensional brain of the author. The shteitl where I happen to be living, is quite far from the centers of Arab population in Israel, but is surrounded on all sides by this or that military installation. Should I check my DNA for presence of Arab blood? But remember - we are talking about the Moebius Man here, one who will not be deterred by mere facts.

And since facts are mentioned (really out of tune with the fact-less article in question), one must not overlook the hilarious introduction to that article:

Time For a Champion of Truth to Speak Up

More than a little uncomfortably, I find myself with a bone to pick with one of our finest champions of humanitarian values and opponents of war.

You may not believe this, but it is true - the words above are dedicated to Fisk! One of the most ridiculous bloody liars of partisan journalism serves as a shining beacon to our hero, who in his Moebius state does not even realize where this act of worship puts him...

So intense is Cook's love/hate affair with Palestine/Israel that he is ready to clash with HRW, an outfit that has definitely no love lost for Israel. He is going out all the way to prove that, while the Zionists intentionally and blood-thirstily killed civilians in Lebanon, Hezbollah targeted only military installations. And get told off by HRW for his trouble.

Well, that is enough, although there are more wonderful, albeit laughable, passages in the article.

Just as a funny detail - the last paragraph, where Cook is frothing about the Camera:

Camera has a section dedicated to "naming and shaming" some of the most influential journalists writing about the Middle East.

Of course, being a humble person, Cook forgot to mention his own puny self. But the fact is that he is also named and shamed here, quite deservedly too, having his ignorance displayed for all to see.

Accidentally, that supporter I mentioned in the beginning, titled his post "Jonathon Cook staves off the zionist hordes". What can I say: the Zionist hordes can definitely do with more jkcooks - so pathetic and ridiculous that they do the Zionist's work for them.

21 August 2007

Generalizations are generally an anathema for me, so I apologize in advance for this post. It is simply that a letter published by Indy that came to my attention today got up my nose.

As it goes, Indy and its various contributors are preoccupied by the exciting task of proving (mostly to themselves and to others of their ilk) that the State of Israel (or, for some of them, who are unable to pronounce this hated name, the Zionist Entity) is an illegitimate offspring of a passing mental weakness by the UN. Worthy pastime, and I shall not interfere with it by any means. However...

Writes one William Garrett from Harrow, Middlesex:

Between then and 1947, Zionist "boat people" flooded into the country but the Palestinians were helpless under the mandate to stop this.

Even for somebody who developed quite a thick skin, perusing all kinds of hate sites, messages and whatnot, this special mix of racism, bigotry and falsification was too much.

To start with, the term "Zionist" applied to the survivors of the Holocaust is a fallacy that points to the mental state of Mr Garrett more than anything else. To call the desperate and destitute Jews in search of a safe harbor "Zionists" is not a slip of the tongue - it is the sign of the times, when a Jew-hater hiding behind the mask of a defender of Palestinian rights lets his hate run away. Just like so many others of them do nowadays, but much less carefully.

Then the "boat people". Leaving Jews (sorry, Zionists for Mr Garrett) aside: it will be interesting to know how Mr Garret called the Chinese citizens of Vietnam trying to escape the communist regime that was taking over. Or the Cubans trying to get out from the Fidel's paradise? Or the Greeks trying to flee Smyrna in 1922? Why cannot I get rid of the feeling that I smell some classic British xenophobia, albeit much less refined than that of some members of upper classes?

The most interesting question, however is this: how in a nation with the most stringent (crossing to absurd actually) Political Correctness theology, in a nation that sends a senior police officer to discuss a forthcoming arrest of a terrorist suspect with his imam, in a nation where prison toilets are aligned according to tenets of Islam - in short how does it happen that a "progressive" paper like Indy is allowed to provide a pulpit to a hateful creature like our Mr Garrett?

It looks like the famous freedom of speech goes mostly one way in the Kingdom. And that the rot spreads...

And here comes (who but Ami Isseroff?) another excellent example of the polarized "pundits" that assist in tearing Joe Public's feeble mind apart:

I cannot imagine Rami Khoury writing in the Beirut Daily Star that the United States or Israel are right about any issue, and that Lebanese and other Arabs, and not Israel or the United States, just might possibly share some responsibility for the misery of their countries. It won't happen. I cannot imagine Caroline Glick writing in Jerusalem Post that an Arab peace offer is reasonable, and that Israel should trade land for peace, unless perhaps Israel is offered Mecca and Medina.

I cannot, contrarily, imagine that Gideon Levy, Amira Hass or Akiva Eldar would ever write, "The situation has changed, and right now is not a good time to end the occupation or make concessions to the Palestinians. It is dangerous to do so." These people will always write the same sort of thing, regardless of whether the White House is occupied by Gandhi or Genghis Khan, regardless of whether our Arab Palestinian neighbors are peaceful and have elected Walid Shoebat (a pro-Israel Palestinian Arab) to lead then, or whether Al Qaeda has taken over the West Bank and Gaza and is building an a-bomb. Every event, no matter what it is, is interpreted as vindicating their pet policy solution.

20 August 2007

It must be noticed (as an international news item of medium interest) that the Iranian premier showman and aspiring stand-up comedian Mahmoud the Mad has sharply increased the frequency of his performances. Just the last Saturday he has given three of them:

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday described arch-foe Israel as "the flag of Satan"...

Notice that, while the increased frequency of the appearances points to Mahmoud's certain financial difficulties, he still changes his suit for every show. Remarkable resilience!

It is also important to remind (see the frequent references to the word "flag") that the mystery presented by the Hamas-inspired version of the Israeli flag continues to disturb Mahmoud's sleep (click on the flag for explanation).

After all, the myth about the blue lines signifying Euphrates and Nile was dispelled, and the article made it clear that the said lines stand for Pacific and Atlantic oceans. However, to some people's chagrin, the article left out (on purpose) the remaining key issue.

19 August 2007

I have copied this from the on-line edition of The Guardian of August 11:

Of course, anyone familiar with this here blog will know that I do, how to say it gently, criticize The Guardian from time to time for its bias. And some may say that I am myself a biased nitpicker. But what the heck, let's nitpick a bit more. Let's also do it in stages.

Stage one: the headline: Man killed in Jerusalem after grabbing gun. What would a reader in a hurry think? Just that a person got himself killed by the simple act of grabbing a gun. Maybe he grabbed his own gun somewhat awkwardly and it went off - happens all the time.

Stage two: let's assume now that the reader can spare another second or two and reads the lede (a fancy word some of my more literate friends use for the sentence below the headline). So what will the lede tell this reader? That the gun in question did not belong to the killed man, but to an Israeli security guard. Uhu. That's a bit more information - so the man grabbed a gun belonging to someone else. Then either the gun went off and killed him or someone else killed him for his trouble, using another gun (or even the same gun, taking it back from the gunjacker).

Stage three: now the intrigued reader (how many of them out there are interested in what is going on in Jerusalem really?) clicks through and goes to the article (by Rory McCarthy who provides most of the local info to The Guardian these days). What does our courageous and curious reader see in the first paragraph?

A man was killed yesterday after grabbing a pistol from an Israeli security guard in Jerusalem's Old City, prompting a chase through the city's narrow streets. Ten other people were injured.

Now our reader, apparently, gets the whole picture: the bloodthirsty Zionists pursued the gun-snatcher (who could have just wanted the gun for some peaceful activity - like a carnival or something) through the crowded narrow streets of the Old City, shooting indiscriminately and not only killed the man, but wounded ten innocent bystanders - as a bonus. At this point the disgusted reader will obviously click out of the article and go to his usual activities (statistically speaking - perusing some porn sites). And who could blame him or her?

Stage four: now we are dealing with a hardcore reader, the one who is really a) deep into absorbing every printed word and b) just crazy about any whisper from the Middle East. (How many of those do you know about?). Such a reader will get another dose of information from the next paragraph or two:

Israeli police said the man snatched the pistol from a private security guard and shot him in the shoulder. A second security guard chased the attacker past Christian souvenir shops and shot him dead. Several shots were fired during the chase and at least one of the injured was seriously hurt. There were many tourists walking through the streets at the time.

OK, now this is a clearer: so the man not only snatched the gun but used it immediately, shooting the poor shlemiel of a guard. Still, the question of shooting at the gun-snatcher in the crowded streets looms severely over the head of that second security guard, bloodthirsty Zionist that he looks like. Unfortunately, by this stage Rory got bored by the facts and switched to politics:

The security guards appeared to be among the many private, armed men who dress in civilian clothes and operate in the Old City guarding Jewish settlers.

Oh, well, we can start nodding off at this stage. Maybe we should just notice that "settlers" label. And idly remark to ourselves that it may be a good idea to start using it for Brits who got into the habit of buying lots of homes in France lately...

Or, if we are some really information-crazed maniacs, we can go to the

Stage five: compare the quote on the second security man above with some other source:

Another guard ran after the man, and nine bystanders were wounded, four from ricochets, in the ensuing gunfight. Five people were wounded by the assailant's gunfire, according to Israel Radio.

I think that at this stage we can round up this essay as far as the text "analysis" is concerned and come to the conclusions and epilogue. So what is the conclusion of this lengthy treatise?

I don't say that Rory M. is a biased journalist. Neither do I claim that the whole vast body of The Guardian are a bunch of anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic vermin just waiting for every opportunity to pounce on the Zionist entity. No - far from it (although they pay salaries or royalties to a few of those - but who doesn't?).

What I strongly feel, though, is that the whole publishing/writing/editing culture of The Guardian somehow leads its journalists and its editors, no matter how objective they try to be, into this (seemingly innocent) habit of structuring their articles on Israel in a specific way. And that this way will unobtrusively guide the inattentive (and who the heck is really attentive to something going on thousands of miles away?) reader into all the wrong conclusions. Or, at the least, into all the wrong impressions. Nothing to show in a court of justice, nothing to rave about in public, nothing you could put your finger on - in a hurry, that is.

I hope this provides an answer to some people wondering why so many of us are unhappy with The Guardian...

17 August 2007

You cannot find mainstream American comics and comedy shows that skewer Israelis and Zionists with the same nasty, at times openly racist, routines that are commonly employed against Arabs and Muslims.

I do commiserate with the author, one Dennis Perrin - indeed this is the sort of spice that is sorely missing in the otherwise fair food rations of the nation of US of A. And who could have thought that the solution is that simple?

15 August 2007

14 August 2007

A police captain in Bashkiriya tried to eat the bribe while being arrested, tells this article. The bribe - 10,000 rubles (about $400) was a payment for stopping a criminal investigation about a theft of some building material.

Since the banknotes were marked, the taste, probably, was even more horrible. Argh...

A German man has broken his own world record for holding his breath under water after managed to remain submerged for 15 minutes and two seconds. Tom Sietas, a 30-year-old engineering student from Hamburg exceeded his own Guinness record time by 37 seconds at the world free diving championships in New York.

And this is really a long article, full of a lot of superfluous details, so you may very well miss this crucial point:

Mr Sietas said that holding his breath helped him to deal with stress, such as getting over an argument with his girlfriend, because he didn't think about anything when he was under water.

Oh, come on, man, this is pathetic. With my mileage (no, I am not disclosing how long here), I can easily out-hold you at any given time. I didn't talk to her for a week once!

13 August 2007

If I had a dollar (no, make it shekel) for every article that starts with these words, I would be able... wait, let me make a quick estimate... to replace our old TV set by a new-fangled LCD flat screen with myriad of new features.

So you can understand my reluctance to post anything about the predictably dreary and rambling article by another connoisseur of high moral ground. But an Hasbara grunt must do what an Hasbara grunt must do...

So, it is Andrew Benjamin now, Professor of Critical Theory in the Centre and at the University of Technology, Sydney. And a philosopher to boot - go argue with a guy like this. Fortunately (or not) the article looks like a cheese that was depleted by mice in a major way. To start with - the famous straw man, as usual built by the author for the author's enjoyment:

However what endures for many as an outrage is Israel hijacking the Holocaust for its political ends: the Holocaust is used to sustain a specific geo-political situation.

In general, this is eerily similar to the logical pirouette so beloved by modern anti-Semites: state of Israel defends its barbaric actions by accusing the critics of antisemitism, ergo we are not anti-Semites when we rightfully criticize Israel. This circular logic is used these days so frequently that the whole business of identifying an anti-Semite has become a new branch of science.

In particular, let us see how our professor illustrated his claim above - it is fantastic for a person with so impressive scientific credentials:

The other night in Sydney at the Great Synagogue a speaker defended the incursion into Lebanon on the grounds that it would prevent a further Holocaust.

You see: the state of Israel hijacks whatever it hijacks, because a speaker in a synagogue happens to be an idiot... sheesh. It truly looks like there are some nincompoops attending the Great Synagogue in Sydney, although it hurts me to say so. But it's not all, look at this:

Until Jews are prepared to argue that the Holocaust and its legacy is not the province of a nation state, let alone a justification for Zionism, our responsibility in relation to the dead will continue to be betrayed.

Who is it exactly that argues thusly, our learned professor does not say. Nor does he know, apparently, that Zionism predates the Holocaust by a few years, but this could be helped by some easy-reading leaflets.

I could explain to Mr Benjamin that the Israeli officials and the whole officialdom, while mentioning Holocaust frequently*, normally do not make it a habit to justify their usual misdeeds by Holocaust. And if he hears one doing so, it is most probably an idiot (see above). I, personally, do not invoke Holocaust more than two or three times a day, and this mostly when trying to jump a queue abroad, because here it does not work for some reason.

But this was only for appetizers, let's continue:

The consequence of this is that a critique of Zionism or a disagreement over the policies of Israel are taken at best as a criticism of Jews and, at worst, as anti-Semitic. The evidence is clear. Attacks on synagogues in Seattle and Parramatta underscore the results of this. These attacks are the result of the politics of a nation state.

Israel, in its present manifestation, sustains anti-Semitism.

You see, how easy it is? Another one of the "I do not support, but I understand" crowd. So, the attacks on the synagogues all over the world are not the deed of some Muslim folks, incensed by anti-Israeli (and frequently anti-Jewish) rhetoric of their leaders, but a sole result of the Israeli existence "in its present manifestation", whatever is the (quite sinister) meaning of this utterance. An elegant attempt of back-assward logic (see "philosopher", will you). But convenient to Israeli-haters and Jew-haters all over the world, just check the links to this article.

I could continue, but Mr Bagelhere has already done a good enough mincemeat of the article, so I shall quote his reference to the article's "main" point:

Mr Benjamin quite early in his opinion piece states:"The source of the feeling is simple: Israel claims that it continues to act in my name."I'm sorry to burst your own self inflated bubble Mr Benjamin but I seriously doubt if the State of Israel has even any knowledge of you. Pray tell me where you find the evidence that Israel as a country acts on behalf of all Jews and especially of you?

The last worthy point is that "bulldozing houses" in Gaza. The last houses to be bulldozed were these of the leaving settlers (for some inexplicable reason this point has escaped many a bleeding heart). And we all know what is going on in Gaza and around it. Or do we? Probably the news have not reached yet some esoteric faculties in Sydney...

So, rest assured, dear professor: not in your name.

(*) Due to unhappy circumstances beyond my control, I have become a frequent visitor of a local cemetery lately. My (admittedly anecdotal) observation is that almost every other tombstone bears a text of the following contents: "In memory of ... and ... who perished in the Holocaust". Since this is an internal Israeli affair, hardly meant for Hasbara purposes, I do not think the text is a work of some sinister power. So I suspect that many of these officials do have a justification for mentioning Holocaust, even if the learned professor cringes at it.

Egyptian authorities have detained two Coptic Christian activists suspected of posting anti-Islamic messages on a Christian web site, a police official and the lawyer for the two said Thursday.

Fawzy and Ezzat are the founders of the Cairo branch of the Middle East Christian Association, known as MECA, a Canada-based group that advocates Christians rights. Police did not specify which postings had led to the arrest of the two.

11 August 2007

New York authorities were taking extra counterterrorism precautions Friday in response to what they said was an unsubstantiated report on an Israeli Web site regarding a radiological threat to the city.

Officials said Friday that they had not changed the city's terror alert status in response to online chatter mentioning a truck packed with radioactive material. But police deployed extra radiological sensors on street, water and air patrols, and were stopping vehicles at checkpoints in lower Manhattan and around the city.

The whole brouhaha stems from a news item on Debkafile, stating the following:

The al Qaeda communications accuse the Americans of the grave error of failing to take seriously the videotape released by the American al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gaddahn last week. “They will soon realize their mistake when American cities are hit by quality operations,” said one message.

Another said the attacks would be carried out “by means of trucks loaded with radio-active material against America’s biggest city and financial nerve center.”

I wouldn't even refer to the whole story (after all, this is so regular on Debka and, besides, Debka is not paying the NYC cops salaries, which by now include some hefty overtime bonuses) but for an interview I happen to stumble upon today on the Army radio. The Debka top dog himself was proud to tell the interviewer about the famous Debka know-how in intercepting Al Qaeda messages and interpreting them for the public good.

The interview climaxed at the following statement:

It could happen anytime anywhere.

I suggest that this become the Debka's new logo.

Another idea would be for Debka to branch out in predicting earthquakes around Pacific Rim. Good business.